The story of Pompeii holds the imagination of so many, from school children to adults. I remember, even as a child, being fascinated with the city that was destroyed by a volcano, so it was no surprise to me when my youngest son learned about it in kindergarten and it was all he could talk about.
Pompeii was still rebuilding from an earthquake that occurred in A.D. 62 when Mount Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79. That eruption buried the city under 30 feet of hot volcanic ash. Over the following centuries, the city was forgotten until a chance rediscovery in 1599. Excavations began in 1748, giving us preserved examples of typical middle-class Roman life.
A tour guide would have been useful here (next time!) because the self-guided tour provided with our tickets was lacking. I became the substitute guide, reading aloud to our group from a travel book I had brought, so we got a lot of history nuggets there. It was interesting to see how this city once looked and imagine what life was like for the citizens of Pompeii. And it’s surprising how similar their lifestyle was to ours today.
The public bath houses even had an outdoor gymnasium for working out before they took a relaxing hot bath! Pompeii had over 130 bars, restaurants and hotels, 40 bakeries and 30 brothels. It had been a busy place in it’s prime!
All posts in the Italy series are here, arranged by city we visited:
Venice, Italy
Florence, Italy
San Gimignano, Italy
Volterra, Italy
Siena, Italy
Montepulciano, Italy
Positano, Italy
Pompeii, Italy
Rome, Italy: Part 1
Rome, Italy: Part 2